More than 200 techniques have been described for correction of prominent ears, indicating that there is no single, widely accepted procedure that has been adopted by most surgeons. This article presents a simplified surgical method for correction of prominent ears. One hundred and twenty-eight otoplasties were performed on 70 patients using the described technique. The main modification of the technique was the use of a diamond burr drill to thin the cartilage posteriorly. Good aesthetic results were obtained in most patients.

Thyroid hemiagenesis is a rare abnormality in which one thyroid lobe fails to develop. Most of the patients diagnosed have an associated thyroid disease. We report the case of a 32-year-old woman who presented with a left thyroid mass which had been gradually increasing in size over a period of two years. A thyroid scan revealed the absence of the right thyroid lobe and isthmus, and a hypoactive nodule was evident in the lower pole of the left lobe. Ultrasonography confirmed the right lobe and the isthmus agenesis. The operative findings confirmed hemiagenesis of the right lobe and nodular hyperplasia in the left lobe.

The purpose of this report is to present a patient with hemiagenesis of the thyroid gland who concomitantly had nodular hyperplasia; we also stress the importance of pre-operative differentiation between benign lesions and malignancy in order to aid critical decision making and to facilitate preservation of thyroid function if possible.

We report a very unusual case of a patient with a previously undiagnosed congenital absence of the left dural venous drainage system and a prominent system on the right. Due to its prominence it was at risk during a cortical mastoidectomy performed as part of an endolymphatic sac decompression procedure. Manipulation of the lateral venous sinus resulted in partial occlusion of the already compromised venous drainage. The result was a rise in intra-cranial pressure and papilloedema, from which the patient recovered. The abnormality was only detected on post-operative imaging.